Collegium Helveticum
Switzerland
fellow
Elisabeth Tveito Johnsen
2025-2026
Home institution
University of Oslo
Country of origin (home institution)
Norway
Discipline(s)
Religious sciences
Theme(s)
Religion
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Elisabeth Tveito Johnsen is Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Oslo (NO). Her current research explores how digitalization influences, shapes, and transforms religious practices—both at the individual and institutional levels. Throughout her career, she has focused on how churches in Norway, as well as in neighboring Sweden and Denmark, are changing at both national and local levels.
An interdisciplinary scholar, Elisabeth draws on theoretical frameworks from media studies, sociology, education, cultural history, and religious studies. She holds a BA and MA in theology and religious studies, and earned her PhD from the University of Oslo in 2014. She was promoted to full professor in 2023.
She has served as principal investigator on two projects funded by the Nordic University Hub ReNEW: Reimagining the Nordic Model of Christian Cultural Heritage and Religious Rituals and Communities in an Age of Social Distancing. One of her recent journal articles is titled “Ecclesial Online Identities during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Scandinavian Majority Churches on Facebook, Christmas 2020”.
Research Project
Digitalization of Religion: The Technology Religions Live
Technology has always been part of society, but the kind of technology we live by shapes how we live. This project investigates how digitalization unfolds within an established religious institution, focusing on the Church of Norway as a case study.
While institutional religious participation is in decline across Europe, churches remain among the most significant actors in civil society. The shift to a digital era brings organizational changes as well as new opportunities for service provision and public engagement. The project explores questions such as how the development of digital infrastructure transforms a religious institution, and how the integration of digital communication reshapes physical meeting places where specific religious services take place.
The Church of Norway (CoN) will serve as the empirical case for this study. Like other majority churches in the Nordic region, the CoN has been an early adopter of the internet and social media. Empirical material will include participant observation of practices such as “drop-in weddings”—a recent innovation designed to attract people to the church in more informal and accessible ways.
Research Interests:
digitalisation; sociology of religion; religious institutions; civil society; digital infrastructure; organisational change; digital communication; Church of Norway; Nordic studies; participant observation; religious practice; public engagement; internet and social media; ritual innovation; religion and technology; secularisation; majority churches; ethnography; service provision; institutional transformation.